Way With Words Transcription Job Review: NOT for Beginners - The Application and Test Process

Hello, everybody, and welcome to my blog, Jennifer Marie VO, where I teach you different ways you can make money online by giving you real and honest reviews on each of these money making platforms. So I have been asked by quite a few subscribers if I could do a tutorial on Way With Words, which is another transcription website. I recorded this tutorial about a month ago and I wasn't planning on releasing it because while I did pass all of the online assessments and quizzes and even the audio tests, I heard back from the offline assessment and for some reason I did not pass it.

I have no idea why since I am sure I did an excellent job. This is also the very first transcription platform that I have not passed.

I've passed REV transcription, REV captioning, Transcribeme, Casting Words, Scribie, QA world Crowdsurf Work, all of them, so I know I'm good. But for whatever reason, they didn't pass me but people have been commenting over and over again that they want me to release a Way With Words tutorial.

So here it is. I'm still going to show you the application process, which is extremely long. And I'll show you the parts of the test that I passed without any issues: all of the online assessment.

And then I'm going to show you the offline assessment which I did not pass. Again, I won't be giving any of the answers to the online assessments because that's against privacy policy. It's also cheating and I don't support that. But anyways, here's the tutorial. The website is waywithwordsjobs.

com, work, when and where you want. We're looking for highly proficient English first language speakers from the following countries and regions, South Africa, the UK, countries in the EU, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. So freelance or full time you can earn between 45 cents and $1.73 per audio minute, based on project turnaround time. Okay, so let's just try to sign up so I'm going to put in my name, surname, email and country then I'm going to agree to the privacy policy that I'm over 18 and then agree with the cookie policy and click Apply now.

Okay, so it says you've signed up successfully, we've sent you a temporary password via email, please use it to log in and start your journey towards becoming a trusted transcriber. Okay, so I've received this email and it says Welcome to Way With Words jobs, it will give me a temporary password in order to complete the registration. But it says here, it's important to note that way with words is looking for people from the following countries that I stated, it says we will not be processing applications from countries other than those mentioned here. So again, I don't know if that's something you can get around by using a VPN or not. But of course, I'm not going to condone that.

That's just something that you know is a choice you might make. So I'm going to go ahead and type in my email and put in my temporary password and click Login.

Okay, then you have to update your password and put in a new password. Click update password. Okay, so here it has a pre-qualifying question says we value privacy and security both of our clients and our transcribers.

The questions below are an important indication of whether you are in a position to complete work for way with words, given the various data protection policies in existence around the globe. This includes ensuring that your computer system is up to date and that you have the necessary software to complete work for way with words. So I'm going to click take quiz.

It says here, we have three tries left. So it asks me Do I own the computer I will use?

As you can see, there's five questions they give you. 10 minutes. Do you have up to date antivirus software running on your computer? Do you have secure and reliable internet access? Do I have up to date operating system and browser on my computer?

Do you have the most up to date version of Microsoft Office 2013 or later? Okay, so I scored 100% it wasn't really a quiz.

It was just asking me about the requirements that I have on my computer. Because they want people to have an up to date computer and to have all the software that you need. Okay, so the next thing I have to do is there's a basic training says we recommend that you complete this basic training module as it outlines certain way with words transcription requirements.

Please keep in mind as you proceed through this module and the following quizzes that British UK English is our dialect of choice. As such, you should adhere to British spelling and grammar rules unless otherwise specified. So this is good to know because other most of the other ones I think all of the other transcription websites I've reviewed, have wanted American English.

And there's quite a few differences, especially with spelling. I'm Canadian, so I actually spell the way a British person would with u, for example, in the word colour, okay, so I have to do this.

And then also there's the general language quiz. So I'm going to go ahead click Start basic training. Okay, so here, we have eight different sections. We've got the computer setup, spelling, plurals, abbreviations, contractions and exceptions, speech marks, compound adjectives, ellipses and notes on how to be an awesome researcher. So this the computer setup is basically everything we just did in the first quiz.

Okay, now they have spelling. So this is quite neat because it tells you the difference between UK spelling and American spelling so for example, centre, metre, litre, theatre, we spell it with RE in the UK and Canada.

And the US they do it with ER, so we have to follow the UK rules here. So we've got test our knowledge. This is really easy.

Just look up here. And, you know, for example, which one... Don't click it because I didn't read it all properly, and that's the wrong answer.

So make sure you read it correctly. And then it'll be red or green when you've answered it correctly. And then you can click on next module. Okay, plurals, English plurals are pretty straightforward. In most cases you have you add an s or an es to a noun in order to pluralize it.

However the fun starts when we have to pluralize acronyms, years, single numbers, etc. So then just answer these two questions here. Okay, and then you're going to click next module. So now we have abbreviations, contractions and exceptions. So now you're going to answer these two questions.

Okay, speech marks. We never ever use speech marks in our way with words transcripts ever under no circumstances. Instead, please indicate direct speech by proceeding it with a comma. Okay, so what they mean is I'm I guess they never use quotation marks ever. They say instead, please use direct speech by proceeding it with a comma.

The first word of the direct speech should not be capitalized. Oh, so this is very different from what I'm used to. So here they have example, she said comma, please stop doing that period. So you would not put quotation marks here with way with words. Okay, test your knowledge choose the correct answers.

Now we have compound adjectives.

Okay ellipses, ellipses are used differently in various parts of the world in order to ensure consistency in our transcripts, way with words has specific rules about how ellipses look, and for what purposes they are used. Okay, so which of the following below is a way with words approved use of an ellipses. Okay basically here, they're telling you to make sure to research words that you don't know. I'm going to click next module.

So it says you've reached the end of training. Good job. You have completed this training module. Now we'll click go to dashboard. Okay, so I've done pre qualifying question, basic training, and now there's a general language quiz.

In this quiz, we assess your general language skills and comprehension of the English language. Important: you are required to pass this quiz with 80% or more in order to advance to the next level. Okay, so here they're just trying to trick you what the difference is between elicit and elicit. Okay, so I completed the quiz, I got 95% it said you've passed the quiz and may continue to the next step. Now one of my suggestions to you is to have open dictionary.

com just in case you want to, you know, some of these words I'm like, I think it's this one, but I'm not quite sure, because you have 20 minutes to do it.

Just put in on the dictionary, all of the different words that you're confused about just to make sure you're choosing the correct one. And click return to dashboard. You might be wondering why I'm hiding the answers. That's because for legal reasons, for the privacy reasons of this company, and also I do not condone cheating.

Alright, let's continue: research quiz. In this quiz, we assess your research skills, concise answers are preferred. Important, you are required to pass this quiz with 80% or more in order to advance to the next level. So let's click take quiz.

Okay, so this is interesting.

This is a research quiz. So basically, they're gonna ask you these trivia questions, and obviously you don't know them. So you're gonna have 20 minutes to go on Google and answer all of these questions. Okay, so I got a 94%. So I passed the quiz and may continue to the next step.

I don't know which one I got wrong. I thought I did a really good job. But anyways, you only need to get 80% so just make sure to Google until you find the answer, and click return to dashboard.

Okay, so now we're on to the audio quiz. So it says in this quiz, we assess your ability to hear and transcribe various dialects as accurately and as verbatim as possible using UK spelling.

Include any contractions as they are spoken. So can't, we would say and not cannot, include relevant punctuation, include repeated phrases, exclude incomplete words, exclude mouth noises, so we don't put umm or ahh. Refer to the basic training module for other way with words style requirements. For this, you only have to get 65% or more in order to advance to the next level. Then we'll click on take quiz.

Okay, so this there's 20 questions. I've got 30 minutes to do this. You can look at the first one, it says type out the audio as you hear it, and it's only three seconds. Okay, so that was pretty easy. I'm gonna click Submit answer.

Okay, so I just completed the audio transcription and I got 70%. Now I'm not gonna lie, I'm shocked. I only got 70% because I thought I would have gotten like 95% so I have no idea what I did wrong But anyways, I passed the quiz so I can continue to the next step.

I will say that if you're not a native English speaker, this might be very difficult for you because I thought I was going to get 95% and I got 70 but again, you do get three tries. Okay, so after that you put in your personal details, you'll put in your first name, your surname, your email, you will have to put in your phone number, your address.

And then they want you to say if you prefer to be paid via PayPal or your UK bank account, so PayPal Okay, so once you've put in all your personal details, and you have to put in everything, it says please download the files below and follow the instructions in order to complete your offline assessment. Once you have completed the assessment, come back and submit your files for evaluation by one of our team members. Your assessment pack also contains the terms and conditions and policies relevant to independent contractors for your specific region. So if I click here on Download offline assessment, you're going to have to have WinRar or WinZip to open this up.

So in here we've got the way with words offline assessment instructions and style guide, the assessment template, proofreading test, finance research example, way with words offline assessment, audio mixed accents, way with word policies.

Uff, this is a very long test. Okay, so the offline assessment consisted of having to proofread a long document that was full of errors, I had to correct over 70 different errors. And they don't tell you which ones they are, you just have to know. I had to edit it in Microsoft Word, and then highlight the errors and then send it back to them. The second part of the online assessment was to listen to an audio file and transcribe it according to the guidelines.

Now as I said earlier, in the video, I got an email saying my application was rejected and I did not pass. Now I have a university degree in English Language and Literature. I'm an native English speaker and I taught English as a second language for over seven years. So you'd think that I would pass this exam, so I have no idea how I failed, but they didn't give me any info about why I failed. So my recommendation to you is only apply to way with words.

If you are confident that you have an excellent level of English, then you can go ahead and give it a try. Or if you have already passed, then please share with us in the comment section how your experience has been with way with words for those who are interested in applying. But if you don't think your English level is that high, then don't waste your time doing a two and a half hour test.

Try another transcription program and check out my tutorials on those. So I hope this video gave you some insight on what to expect when you're applying and then you can decide for yourself whether or not this is something you'd be interested in.